I was inspired by the patch blog 'Mysterious Donation Bins Raise Questions' to look a little closer at the array of colorful mailers asking for pick-up donations that arrive every week by mail.
I save the mailers (it seems like you get one a week) and use them to keep entropy at bay in a household where clothes, toys, and books get outgrown; and stuff in the form of craft supplies and projects in the making, or in a permanent state of oblivion, make it necessary to sometimes let go of some of it. If it goes to a good cause all the better. If it is tax deductible, it is a win-win.
The fliers look like they have been printed at the same place. They all have a worthy cause: help people with develpmental disabilities, help people in need, help children in need, help schools, fund cancer research. They all claim to be a 501(c)(3) organisation with a tax receipt attached or with the promise that one will be left by the driver.
You take the 501(c)(3) as a badge of honor, proving the organizations are legit and doing what they say. But are they all the same, or are some 'worthier' than others?
Right now I have fliers from 'Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area', 'United Cancer Research Society', 'Green Education Foundation', 'Parca', 'Carh', 'Hope Services' and 'Mission Ministries'.
At the suggestion from comments on the 'Mysterious... ' blog I checked on Charitynavigator.org:
- CARH (Community assistance for the retarded and handicapped), Castro Valley 'advisory' for not filing fundraising expenses on the last Form 990
- 'Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area' - not rated
- Green Education Foundation, San Jose - not rated
- Mission Ministries, Hayward - could not find them
- Parca (Parent Association for Retarded Children)- is a private foundation, not a public charity, so not rated
- United Cancer Research Society - not rated because it doesn't have more than 1 million in revenues
- Hope Services, Santa Clara - could not find them
Another tip was to search through: oag.ca.gov/charities (Office of the Attorney General):
- CARH - can't find them
- Big Brothers Big Sisters - can't find them
- Green Education Foundations - comes up as public benefit charity and 'not registered'
- Mission Ministries - religious charity
- Parca - comes up as 'not registered'
- United Cancer Research, Redlands, CA - come up as 'current' and you can access info on their yearly revenue
- HOPE Services -can't find them
Then there is the IRS:
- CARH - Lists Tax iD and comes up as a public charity
- Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the Bay Area - Lists Tax ID, is a public charity
- Green Education Foundations - sounds like their projects are in the future,
don't list tax ID on web page or flier email.
- Mission Ministries - (legal Name= Hayward Full Gospel Temple Inc.), pc
What about the specific charity websites?
- CARH: Looks OK
- Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the Bay Area -www.bbbsba.org
- Green Education Foundation - the website is www.RecyclingEDU.com Their projects are mostly in the future tense, no response to email asking for what they are doing right now in specific schools. The founder is CEO of 7thgenerationrecycling 'Americas #1 recycling company", and there is another website 7grecycling.com where you are asked to host a recycling bin.
- Mission Ministries : www.fullgospelmissionministries.org maps over 100 donation box sites in the East Bay. Email bounces back.
- Parca House 4 Inc - a pf=private foundation: www.Parca.org
- United Cancer Research: lists emil, but no website, it comes up as www.unitedcancer.org and lists what organizations they have contributed to and how you can give
- HOPE - www.hopeservices.org .Looks OK - answers email, saying they are a current 501(c)(3)
(If I could not find information when looking things up above, it could be that you needed to search differently, so it could come up if you give it another try.)
I feel a little wiser after my little search, but it seems hard to really evaluate the 'goodness' of an organization, or how effectively they use your donations, and how much money they bring in, and if they have commercial help that takes a cut.
Actually, my neighbor told me of a big garage sale her church is organizing for projectrescue.org (saving children from brothels in India) in July and I think I will donate my next batch of stuff to them.